I don't put much stock in Robert Hare's psychopathy checklist, but just for fun we might want to check it against some of our political and corporate leaders. Hare estimates that about three million Americans are psychopaths. That means that if you go to a Santa Rosa Symphony concert, there are probably about three psychopaths in the audience and maybe one leading the orchestra. Keep in mind that psychopaths are often "deciders" who exhibit what humans call "leadership."
Leaders suffering from aggressive narcissism show many of the symptoms listed below:
- Glibness or superficial charm
- A grandiose sense of self-worth and pathological lying
- Cunning/ manipulative skills
- Lack of remorse or guilt for antisocial outcomes of their behavior.
- Shallow affect (genuine emotion is short-lived and self-centered)
- Callousness; lack of empathy
- Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
It's easy to point to examples of people who are glib, cunning, lack remorse and fail to accept responsibility for their own actions: Dick Cheney, Ralph Nader, Michele Bachmann, Noam Chomsky, Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton, most corporate CEOs, Donald Trump, Mitt Romney, Paris Hilton, Ron and Rand Paul and so on.
Many of us are eager to follow at least one or two of them, aren't we?
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